Foxcatcher (2014)

Foxcatcher Synopsis

Foxcatcher is a psychological drama directed by Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller (Moneyball) and starring Golden Globe winner Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo, Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller. The film was written by E. Max Frye and Academy Award nominee Dan Futterman. Foxcatcher tells the story of Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Tatum), who sees a way out from the shadow of his more celebrated wrestling brother Dave (Ruffalo) and a life of poverty when he is summoned by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont (Carell) to move onto his estate and train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Desperate to gain the respect of his disapproving mother, du Pont begins "coaching" a world-class athletic team and, in the process, lures Mark into dangerous habits, breaks his confidence and drives him into a self-destructive spiral. Based on actual events, Foxcatcher is a gripping and profoundly American story of fragile men who pinned their hopes for love and redemption on a desperate obsession for greatness that was to end in tragedy.

With Steve Carell's latest career choices, he is slowly creeping up the ladder as Hollywood's "Most Likable Actor" - not only as one of our favorite comedic actors, but now as one of our most interesting dramatic actors.

Thanks to the fact that 2014 was such a brilliant year for film, practically every Academy Award category this year can be seen as a tight race Ė but there is one that really stands above them all. The crop of Best Actor candidates this year was absolutely incredible, to the point where you almost wish they changed the rules to allow 10 nominations instead of the normal five.

Now that the dust has settled and all of the results are in, itís time to look at the big winners and losers of this yearís Golden Globes. Who or what gained the most momentum? Who or what lost the most? Read on to find out!

The Producers Guild Association is the latest group to drop its selection for the best of 2014, and those of us tracking each step of the Oscar marathon found more than enough interesting elements to single out.

It was only a few months ago during the New York Film Festival that Foxcatcher director Bennett Miller said there was virtually no opposition from any of his film's subjects to telling this story. He spoke a bit prematurely, as the real-like Mark Schultz aggressively denounced his portrayal in the film.

SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains light spoilers for Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher. If you haven't seen the film and don't wish to be spoiled, please click over to another one of our wonderful articles.

Foxcatcher is in theaters now, and is earning raves for Millerís direction, as well as for the acting performances of the three male leads Ė Tatum, Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo. Could this controversy start to damage the filmís reputation? Or is it all a massive misunderstanding?

2014 wonít go down as the greatest year in the history of Hollywood, but it had a lot of damn good movies. Some of them were big budget, some of them were made on shoestrings. In a way, thatís the great thing about Hollywood.

After much agonizing, rank swapping, and last-minute screening squeeze-ins, I am ready to reveal my Top 10 for 2014 - and itís a list of movies that made me feel hundreds of kinds of emotions throughout the year and that I plan to watch many times again in the future.

All lists are subjective, and Iím sure we will disagree on certain selections. But these are the films that moved me most, the ones that either hit with the largest impact or stuck with the greatest intensity.

Iím legitimately comforted by the fact that the ultra-serious dude from Foxcatcher -- the guy who appears like he could snap my neck like a twig Ė sends hilariously pompous emails to his friends and colleagues when heís experiencing a true upbeat moment in his professional life.

The CCMAs are selected by critics, and have no direct influence on the Oscars. But as I mentioned in the last episode of Awards Blend (our weekly Oscar podcast), recognition by groups like SAG and the BFCA only help a filmís Oscar campaign, and an omission by a key organization like the BFCA can damage a campaign (or, at the very least, set it back).

Someoneís going to be left out in the cold. Several very talented and deserving people, in fact. Thereís no avoiding it. There are simply too many talented actors vying for five Best Actor slots this year, so on the morning of the Oscar nominations, there could be as many as 10 worthy performers looking at the five nominees and wondering why they arenít in that exclusive group.

Ladies and gentlemen it is time once again to heap praise on the internet for perfectly mashing together two movies that have pretty much got nothing in common. Except for the word "Fox." Take a gander below at the first, and probably last, trailer for The Fantastic Mr. Foxcatcher.

This is the first time weíre going on record with official Oscar predictions, breaking films down into Frontrunners, Contenders, Dark Horses and Longshots. We still have a number of films left to screen between now and the end of the year. To date, hereís where I think all of the top films stand.

This year may find Channing Tatum in the in his very fist Oscar campaign. The actor's performance in Bennett Miller's upcoming sports drama Foxcatcher has been earning rave reviews, and while most of us haven't had the chance to actually see the movie yet, his passion and intensity getting into the role is very much apparent in this newly revealed behind the scenes story.

Hollywood is always trying to figure out the best time to release an Oscar hopeful. But after a film has tested the waters of the film festival circuit, what is the point of holding it back from an interested audience?

I could dig, analyze and appreciate Foxcatcher for years. All of that being said, Foxcatcher is remarkable. It is a stirring thesis about how wealthy power brokers manipulate situations, and how those without influence are seduced.

Between these four fests, cinephiles and critics will have a chance to preview titles that are sure to be the most talked about of award season. We've sorted through the buzz of Telluride, Venice, TIFF and NYFF to distill what five movies you must see to stay in the conversation this year.

Iím in Toronto once again, covering my eighth consecutive TIFF. Itís always a thrill to be at the center of the fest, but I know (from experience) how overwhelming it can be. So I jumped on a podcast with my great friend and colleague Erik Davis of Movies.com to preview the 10 films that we can not wait to see in Toronto.

There is a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding Steve Carellís upcoming performance in Foxcatcher. In fact, the actor is expected to be a major force this awards season. He is, by all accounts, great in the film.

The flashier names are familiar to anyone who followed Cannes this year. Bennett Miller's murder mystery Foxcatcher will be a part of the fest, as will Alice Rohrwacher's The Wonders and Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner.

As expected, TIFF (as Torontoís summarily dubbed) unveiled a healthy slate of programming in its first initial announcement, part of the run up to this yearís robust film festival. (The dates of the 2014 Toronto Fest are Sept. 4 to 14, and we will be on the ground covering every inch of the festival, per usual.)

Foxcatcher is coming, and Jesus, does it look dark. This true-life drama tells the story of an ambitious wrestling prodigy, Mark Schultz, who gets involved with a shady millionaire, John Du Pont (Steve Carell). If you're familiar with the real story, you know where this is all headed, and it's not pretty. But, being a trailer, this clip assumes you're not. And even though the basic plot developments make sense in an A-to-B progression sort of way, this feels like a clip for a movie that will be entirely unpredictable.

It was just a couple weeks ago that Channing Tatum was back in theaters once again playing the mentally deficient Officer Greg Jenko and stirring up laughs in Phil Lord and Chris Miller's 22 Jump Street. His second live action film of 2014, as you can see from the brand new poster you see above, won't be quite as smile-inducing.

The film tracks the relationships developed between a hotelier in Anatolia and the relationships he has with people he disdains. This win occurred on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Turkish cinema, and is one of Ceylan's many honors at the fest: previously, he won the Gran Prix (basically second place) for Distant and the moody, funny Once Upon A Time In Anatolia.

Not familiar with Foxcatcher? In the film, Steve Carell plays schizophrenic American mogul John DuPont, who enters into a deadly standoff with former Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) after DuPont murders Schultzís brother (played by Mark Ruffalo).

Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher was one of two films that was bumped from Sony's awards season slate last year. Judging by the first clip we've seen from the film, not only was it a mistake not to have run this film in last year's contest, it looks infinitely more compelling than its brother in delayed release woe, The Monuments Men. While star Steve Carell has shown dramatic promise before, this looks like it's a ticket to a surefire Oscar nomination.

The festival will open with Olivier Dahan's Grace Of Monaco, though there's no shortage of auteirist works as well. Former Grand Prix winner Atom Egoyan returns with Ryan Reynolds-starrer The Captive while Jean-Luc Godard presents his newest late-career project, the winkingly-titled Goodbye To Language, which will be presented in 3D.

IndieWire reports Miller and the producers are pushing the planned December release of Foxcatcher off until 2014. This is the point in which I jump up and down, beating my chest, yelling, ďAre you kidding me?Ē Luckily, Sony Pictures wisely released the filmís first trailer and gave us something to bide our time with, and boy is it a doozy.

Based on a harrowing true story, Tatum stars as Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz, who is desperate to find a way to come out from beneath the shadow of his brother Dave Schultz (Ruffalo), also an Olympic wrestler. Mark believes that he has a chance to do this when he meets du Pont, an eccentric multi-millionaire who offers Mark the chance to move in with him and train for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

I've had my eye on Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher for ages, and for a lot of the obvious Oscar-baity reasons. It's the follow-up film from the director of Moneyball and Capote, and tells another true story with a tinge of murder, about how the heir to a massive fortune came to sponsor a wrestling team and eventually murder one of the players. And, as you might expect from the guy who made Moneyball, Foxcatcher has a fantastic cast in place to draw you in

It sounds a drastic shift for Miller, though Capote was a true-crime drama-thriller driven by elaborate characters and top-shelf acting. Carell and Ruffalo certainly is capable of soul-searching performances. The wild card will be Tatum, who absolutely has grown and matured as an actor.

Given that Columbia Pictures-- a.k.a. Sony-- was behind the successful and Oscar-lauded Moneyball, it makes sense that they would want to continue being in business with director Bennett Miller. So it's not especially surprising to learn that Sony has picked up the distribution rights to Miller's next film, Foxcatcher

Anthony Michael Hall is an actor who has undergone a pretty impressive transformation over the course of his career. While he started out as a teen playing geeks and nerds in John Hughes movies, as he aged he grew to a strong size and is now almost unrecognizable to his fans from the 80s. Also, unlike some of his Brat Pack cohorts, he has kept his acting career going, taking roles in movies like The Dark Knight...

In an unexpected casting move, Miller chose funny man Steve Carell to play the homicidal heir, and now Sienna Miller will be joining the cast. She's slated to play wife to the ill-fated Olympian who will be portrayed by everyone's favorite Hulk, Mark Ruffalo. Channing Tatum, who co-starred with Miller in her last noteworthy film appearance G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra, is also on board, lined up to play Schultz's brother.

Things are currently looking really good for Mark Ruffalo. In addition to getting extremely positive early reviews for his performance as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in Joss Whedonís The Avengers, heís just landed a role in the next film from Academy Award-nominated director Bennett Miller.

Channing Tatum has signed on to play Schultz, who was close friends with du Pont and was trying to help the man get his life in order when he was murdered for his efforts. Schultz was a seven-time world and Olympic wrestling champion. He left behind a wife and two children when he was murdered. As for du Pont, he was jailed for his crime and died in prison in 2010

Prepare to hear the name "Bennett Miller" at least once a week for the rest of the year. Thanks to the critical and box office success of Moneyball, Miller has established himself as an early, strong contender for this year's Oscar race. But the filmmaker isn't just bathing in the glow of victory; he's already in pre-production for his next project and a report suggests that he has found his new leading man.